ya it was surprising when they traded harden, and all they had to do is get rid of perkins so they could pay harden his money that he did deserve at the time

i agree with bill simmons that they should have waited a year and then see were thing are at, try one more year to win with the okc big three instead of doing what they did

by then they would have realized with westbrook injured that harden is pretty much untradeable asset

the problem is keeping harden is not enough. Even if you shed perkins, you're still right at the luxury threshold, which means you can't replace him and who you're going to play at C? Their bench was already very thin.

This way, once they get rid of perkins, they will have 2-3 solid rookies (based on draft position) which could provide solid bench production for peanuts for 3-4 years. Which would allow them to use the remaining room under the luxury tax to either resign perkins for less, or get some other starting level C.